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Iowa State manufactures, ships what they say is first swine H1N1 vaccine

Nov 25, 2009

By dvm360.com staff

DVM360 MAGAZINE

Ames, Iowa -- Iowa State University has developed and shipped what they say is the first H1N1 vaccine available for swine to a producer in Indiana.

Hank Harris, professor of animal science at Iowa State, developed the vaccine over the summer and has been shipping preventative doses to swine producers in Iowa, Kansas and Illinois for several weeks, according to the university. But the Indiana shipment is the fist that will go to a herd with a confirmed case of H1N1 in swine, Harris says.

"This is the first time we've had a confirmed diagnosis and the farmer wanted to vaccinate," Harris says in a statement from the university. "We shipped about 20,000 with about another 11,000 doses to go out to them later."

The vaccine was sent with the hope that the infected swine won't spread the illness to the rest of the herd.

The vaccination recently was reviewed in the online journal PloS Current Influenza. It is being manufactured through Iowa State University and Harris' own company, Harrisvaccines Inc.